Inquest hears RCMP shot former Canadian soldier twice in the back

A former soldier who was fatally shot by the Mounties had been bullied by comrades in the Canadian military, then harassed by police, his sister told jurors Monday at the start of a coroner’s inquest into his death.

Greg Matters was shot twice in the back with an M-16 rifle during a confrontation with an emergency response team from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at his rural property near Prince George, B.C., in September 2012.

Tracey Matters described her brother as a shy man who joined the Canadian Forces to do good in the world, but ended up injured and ultimately discharged from the military.

“I understand there’s a bit of a bullying culture in the military and if you’re unable to keep up your physical end of things, then you could actually start to become a target of bullying,” she told the jury.

“I believe Greg was working though his pain, but it got to a point where he wasn’t able to fulfil all of his duties as a soldier.

“I believe there was bullying happening.”

I believe Greg was working though his pain, but it got to a point where he wasn’t able to fulfil all of his duties as a soldier

Mr. Matters was honourably discharged in 2009, after a 15 year-career in the military.

Ms. Matters said she didn’t recognize her brother when he came home. He was anxious, withdrawn, suffered nightmares and barely slept.

She contacted a clinic that specialized in soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and he began to see a psychiatrist.

“He was making tremendous progress,” she testified.

But Andrew Kemp, lawyer for the B.C. attorney general, painted a different picture.

Related

He asked the woman if she knew about Mr. Matters’ arrests for assaulting his brother and uttering threats to kill the local Crown lawyer.

He was also reported to Mounties over harassing emails sent to his former psychiatrist.

“Were you aware that he had several run-ins with police before this unfortunate incident?” Mr. Kemp asked Ms. Matters, who came from Australia where she has lived for 25 years for the inquest.

“I thought it was Greg’s post-traumatic stress disorder, but he would often tell me about incessant police harassment,” she replied.

“He believed he was under surveillance and his phones were tapped. And he believed his car had been bugged. I thought it was paranoia as a result of his post-traumatic stress disorder.”

I thought it was paranoia as a result of his post-traumatic stress disorder

Speaking of the man’s arrest for assaulting his brother, she said, “He had been picked up by police, and I would say beaten up. He required cosmetic surgery to his face …

“He believed he was being treated unfairly and I believed he was being treated unfairly.”

Earlier, Cameron Ward, a lawyer for the Matters family, told the four men and three women on the jury they will hear evidence police knew Mr. Matters did not have any firearms when they came to his property.

They showed up in the evening, without a warrant, cut through the lock on the gate and confronted him 40 hours after what Mr. Ward described as a minor incident in a long feud between the brothers.

“Consider, as you hear the evidence unfold, what the effect on Mr. Matters, a Bosnian war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, alone in his farmhouse when four heavily armed police officers wearing camouflage fatigues enter, a helicopter circling overhead,” Mr. Ward told the jury.